photo #1802691

My 1957 MONO pressing of Walt Disney's "Fantasia". The STEREO version was released in 1964, seven years later on the multi-colored Buena Vista label. Fantasia was the first commercial movie ever, to incorporate stereo sound. Can you imagine what it must have been like to have experienced Fantasia in STEREO in one of the few theatres..? Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, San Francisco, Baltimore, Washington, Minneapolis, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland. New recording equipment had to be developed, specifically for recording audio for this movie, and special playback equipment developed and installed in each of the theatres. It was called, "Fantasound". The recording alone for Fantasia took almost eighteen months... Thirty-three microphones were mixed into nine channels, that carried the music into nine recorders. 483,000 feet of sound track were recorded in forty-two days. In the theatres, ten different Fantasound speaker systems were created. Each utilized multiple speakers placed at various points within the auditorium, immersing the viewers for the first time in stereophonic sound. The film was released as a "roadshow" picture, and each theatre showing it had to be fitted with Fantasound systems to properly convey the piece. These installations had greatly increased production costs for the film, which is partly why it was a commercial failure until decades after its original release. Walt Disney and "Fantasia" were way ahead of their time. The Roadshow's came to a close in 1941 because the amount of equipment required for the installation, and limited space in the projection rooms, which was a major issue. In April 1941, RKO Pictures had acquired distribution rights of Fantasia, and had replaced the Stereo Fantasound soundtrack with a monaural soundtrack. All but one of the original Fantasound systems had been dismantled and contributed to the war effort. On February 26, 1942, an Academy Honorary Award was given to Walt Disney, William "Bill" Garity, John Hawkins and RCA for their "outstanding contribution to the advancement of the use of sound in motion pictures through the production of Fantasia". I know.. it obviously isn't Rock & Roll, but how many of us had watched this when we were kids? I just thought I'd do a little background history on it.